The present invention relates generally to electronic shopping systems and, more particularly to an electronic shopping system which utilizes a program downloadable wireless video phone as a purpose-type dedicated terminal which enables a shopper to capture, recognize and decode captured images.
Electronic shopping systems for allowing a shopper to purchase products without necessarily having to travel to a store are well known. One example of a contemporary electronic shopping system is a cable television shopping channel, wherein products are advertised on television. A shopper merely watches the television and when an item is shown for which a purchase is desired, the shopper uses a telephone to call an agent of the seller to place an order for the desired product. Usually, a credit card number is given over the telephone to facilitate payment for the purchased item. The purchased product is then shipped directly to the buyer.
In an improved version of cable television shopping, an interactive or bidirectional cable system allows the purchaser to make selections directly from the television screen. This may be accomplished by using a menu driven system controlled by the television remote control. In this manner, the need to make a telephone call is avoided. The added convenience of shopping directly from the television is expected to enhance consumer response to such advertisements.
Similar to cable television shopping is the use of the Internet to make desired purchases from the home. Many companies presently offer their products for sale on the Internet, and the number doing so is increasing rapidly. Products as diverse as pizzas, books and automobiles can readily be purchased from the comfort of a person""s home, simply by locating the web page of a company selling the desired item, selecting the item to be purchased, providing an address to which the item is to be delivered, and providing a credit card number to pay for the purchased item.
However, one disadvantage of such contemporary electronic shopping systems is that they require that the prospective purchaser subscribe to either cable television or to an Internet service, for which a subscription fee is charged. Further, such contemporary electronic shopping systems require that purchases be made from either the purchaser""s television or computer, both of which are typically located in the purchaser""s home and cannot usually be easily transported. Thus, the purchaser is undesirably constrained to shopping from the home.
Because of the highly mobile nature of modern society, it is desirable to provide the ability to conduct electronic shopping from locations away from the home. For example, a purchaser may wish to order items from the workplace, over lunch in a restaurant, while traveling, and in a variety of other, different circumstances wherein the purchaser does not have access to his or her home television or computer.
It is also known to use a personal shopping system (PSS) wherein the purchaser carries a scanner embedded hand-held terminal within a store. Bar codes of products to be purchased are scanned with the hand-held scanner. A display on the scanner embedded hand-held terminal displays an item price and a running total of the purchase prices of the products which have been scanned. Payment for the scanned products is accomplished at a checkout counter in a conventional manner.
However, contemporary personal shopping systems require the use of a dedicated personal shopping system terminal, which has a small display, a number keypad, and a built-in bar code scanner. Of course, the use of such a contemporary dedicated portable personal shopping system requires a substantial financial investment by the retailer in the portable personal shopping system terminals.
Wireless telephones, such as cellular telephones, are very popular. As the price of wireless telephones and the cost of making calls therewith continue to decrease, more people are purchasing and using wireless telephones.
As used herein, the term wireless telephone is defined to include mobile telephones, cellular telephones, satellite telephones and any other telephones not requiring a wired connection, such as cordless home telephones which have a limited range and must generally therefore be used close to the house.
In view of the low cost and ubiquitous nature of wireless telephones, it is desirable to provide a system for performing electronic shopping which utilizes a customer""s own wireless telephone for the selection of items to be purchased, as well as for providing payment for such purchased items. By utilizing the customer""s own wireless telephone for electronic shopping, rather than using a dedicated personal shopping system terminal, the substantial investment associated with the use of such dedicated personal shopping system terminals is eliminated.
Further, additional efficiencies can be realized if wireless telephones are provided with a graphic display, such as a small color or monochrome LCD display and a visual image capture device, such as a CCD digital camera, i.e., is configured as a wireless videophone. In this particular case, a wireless videophone is able to extend the capabilities of electronic shipping by eliminating altogether the requirement for dedicated terminals to scan machine-readable code, as well as reduce a vendor""s investment in these dedicated terminals. Wireless videophones would, thus, provide the most cost effective way of accommodating an electronic shopping system since a customer need only carry a single, personalized commodity apparatus which serves multiple functions, including electronic shopping, thus minimizing the customer""s investment.
The present invention specifically addresses and alleviates the above-mentioned deficiencies associated with the prior art. More particularly, the present invention comprises an electronic shopping system for facilitating purchase transactions via a wireless videophone to which a program download function, a downloaded program execution function and an integral digital camera and display screen have been added. However, since the functionality added to the wireless videophone is small, the wireless videophone is still capable of being produced as an inexpensive commodity product.
The electronic shopping system comprises a server and at least one wireless videophone for communicating with the server. Thus, according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, once a customer visits a store, the customer simply dials the number of the store""s personal shopping system service. The personal shopping system application is then automatically downloaded into the customer""s videophone. The downloaded program automatically begins execution and provides the desired functionality of a personal shopping system. An integral digital camera is used to scan the images of bar codes of purchased items, and pattern recognition software resident either in the videophone or in the server, translates the bar code image data into an alpha-numeric product identification. Thus, the present invention allows retailers to implement a personal shopping system while minimizing the cost investment necessary to do so.
More particularly, according to the present invention a store maintains a server which provides a downloadable purchase transaction program to a purchaser""s wireless videophone when the purchaser calls the store""s server via the purchaser""s wireless videophone. After downloading the purchase transaction program from the server to the wireless videophone, the server communicates with the wireless videophone so as to use the downloaded purchase transaction program to facilitate selection of the desired product(s) for purchase, as well as to facilitate payment therefore.
It is desirable to download the purchase transaction program into a wireless videophone as needed, rather than to permanently store the purchase transaction program in the wireless videophone, because downloading allows a plurality of different sellers to utilize their own programs, rather than requiring a single, universal program for all sellers. It should be appreciated that different sellers will desire to incorporate different messages, advertisements, menus, etc. into their own purchase transaction program and to further customize their own purchase transaction program so as to tailor it to the particular products being sold.
Further, since different types of wireless videophones are contemplated to have different displays, keypads, camera and display types, etc., it is desirable to download a purchase transaction program which is specifically tailored to a particular type of wireless videophone, so as to make the best use of that particular wireless videophone""s features.
The purchase transaction program transmitted from the server to the wireless telephone is loaded into a program memory of the wireless videophone via a program loader of the wireless videophone. The program loader effects loading of the purchase transaction program into the program memory as the purchase transaction program is being transmitted from the server to the wireless videophone. The downloaded purchase transaction program contains instructions for facilitating product selection and payment via the wireless videophone. Thus, the purchase transaction program converts the wireless videophone into a point of purchase electronic shopping terminal.
Although the electronic shopping system of the present invention is described herein as being used to purchase products, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the electronic shopping system is likewise suitable for purchasing services, or anything else which is desired. Thus, use of the term xe2x80x9cproductxe2x80x9d is by way of illustration only and not by way of limitation. Further, as used herein the term xe2x80x9cstorexe2x80x9d is defined to include any seller of goods or services, including a retail store, a wholesale store, or any other vendor.